Biomass Drying Research Articles

Process optimization of one-step direct transesterification and dual-step extraction-transesterification of the Chlorococcum-Nannochloropsis consortium for biodiesel production

In the present study, the efficacy of one-step direct transesterification (OSDT) and Dual-step extraction-transesterification (DSET) of Chlorococcum sp., Nannochloropsis sp., and their consortium was evaluated for fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) yield. Initially, the biomass yield and lipid content of the two strains and their consortium were estimated. Of the biomasses, the consortium showed a higher biomass yield of 1.41 g/L and lipid content of 30.2%, which is higher than the monocultures irrespective of the different biomass drying methods used. With regards to the FAME yield, OSDT and DSET have yielded almost similar quantities about 21 g/100g dried biomass. Of the different reaction conditions of OSDT tested, a higher FAME yield at 70–71% (based on lipid weight) was obtained at 75 °C reaction temperature, 3 h reaction time with a 2g sample size. Eventually, the fatty acid composition of consortium biomass revealed higher levels of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids in the vicinity of 46 and 25%, respectively. Based on the results, it is concluded that OSDT is a promising method due to its low energy consumption, cost-effective and time-saving attributes for quality biodiesel production from the Chlorococcum-Nannochloropsis consortium.

The energy efficiency of a solar greenhouse for biomass drying

Solar energy is a renewable, inexhaustible and clean source, it is becoming the main target of several applications, both domestic or industrial, cutting costs on electrical and thermal demands when compared with conventional sources. In the case of solar chamber, which makes use of incident solar radiation, it creates a favorable microclimate for drying inputs for reducing humidity to prevent the spread of biodegradable agents, on agricultural, forestry, and other products. With the objective to verify the energy efficiency of a prototype of the Greenhouse model, a solar chamber was built, where energy data and environmental variables were daily monitored in the drying process. For the determination of energy efficiency the ratio between converted energy into heat by the received energy was used. It was found that the chamber presented a daily energy gain of 220141,7 kJ, a daily thermal efficiency of 13,96% and up to 3 pm in 24,19%. The percentage difference in this efficiency is attributed to the chamber structure, which transmits and absorbs a higher percentage of solar energy during the day, but at night due to its transmissibility, emissivity properties, in addition to small structural failures that favor greater energy losses.

Preliminary Results of Innovative Two-Stage Torrefaction Technology Applied for Thermochemical Treatment of Sunflower Husk

This article proposes an innovative two-stage technology for biomass torrefaction generating high-quality biochar, more specifically biocoal, as solid fuel, and offering a promising solution to the challenges posed by the combustion of biomass. In particular, the higher quality of biochar as solid fuel reduces the build-up of unmanageable deposits on fired surfaces, as these deposits inhibit heat transfer and reduce the efficiency of biomass boilers. The proposed two-stage technology involves torrefaction in a hearth-type reactor at temperatures up to 250 °C, followed by a subsequent stage of cooling achieved through washing with water. The two-stage torrefaction technology is integrated within a vertical hearth reactor vessel composed of three superimposed trays serving for biomass input, torrefaction, and water washing combined with biomass cooling, respectively. Upon contact with torrefied biomass, cooling water turned into water vapor; hence, eliminating the requirement for subsequent biomass separation and drying. The system was tested on sunflower husk, and results showed a reduction in the content of problematic elements such as alkali metal chlorides or sulfur compounds in biochar ash, suggesting lower corrosion rates of convective heating surfaces of the boiler under ash sediments. It is hypothesized that, while water exited hot biomass in the form of water vapor instead of liquid water, as is typically the case in water-washing processes, a share of undesirable elements may still have been removed from biomass through vaporization, without necessitating any additional process for ash removal. Hence, the index values calculated according to the chemical analysis of biomass ash suggested that sunflower husk biochar (biocoal) resulting from the proposed two-stage torrefaction process may display fuel characteristics similar to biomasses whose combustion ash may form reduced levels of deposits on boiler surfaces. Therefore, the proposed technology holds the potential to improve solid fuel characteristics of biomass, targeting enhanced efficiency and sustainability of biomass-fired power plants.

Experimental Study on Drying Biomass with a Spherical Heat Carrier.

Due to the reduction of the thermal efficiency and output fluctuation of the boiler system caused by the high moisture in biomass, dewatering of fuels using low-cost processes is an important step in feedstock pretreatment for biomass power plants. In the present study, a steel ball was used as the spherical heat carrier (SHC). The effects of the SHC temperature on the dewatering of different biomasses were investigated by a mixture-drying device at 40% moisture content of biomass, and the drying process of peanut shells was analyzed. Results showed that the moisture content was effectively reduced, and the combustion performance of the biomass was significantly promoted. The work is likely to provide an economically feasible approach for biomass drying in further studies.

NeuroPNM: Model reduction of pore network models using neural networks

Reacting particle systems play an important role in many industrial applications, for example biomass drying or the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals. The numerical modeling and simulation of such systems is therefore of great importance for an efficient, reliable, and environmentally sustainable operation of the processes. The complex thermodynamical, chemical, and flow processes that take place in the particles are a particular challenge in a simulation. Furthermore, typically a large number of particles is involved, rendering an explicit treatment of individual ones impossible in a reactor-level simulation. One approach for overcoming this challenge is to compute effective, physical parameters from single-particle, high-resolution simulations. This can be combined with model reduction methods if the dynamical behaviour of particles must be captured. Pore network models with their unrivaled resolution have thereby been used successfully as high-resolution models, for instance to obtain the macroscopic diffusion coefficient of drying. Both parameter identification and model reduction have recently gained new impetus by the dramatic progress made in machine learning in the last decade. We report results on the use of neural networks for parameter identification and model reduction based on three-dimensional pore network models (PNM). We believe that our results provide a powerful complement to existing methodologies for reactor-level simulations with many thermally-thick particles.

A biomass-based polygeneration system for a historical building: A techno-economic and environmental analysis

Combined cooling, heating, and power systems (CCHP) are considered one of the most efficient energy systems since they have a less detrimental environmental impact, and therefore sustainable energy savings, and eventually less CO2 emissions. An even higher advantage is possible when a renewable energy fuel source (e.g., Biomass) is used. The proposed study presents the energy modeling of a 169 kWe capacity, biomass-based CCHP system retrofitted to a historical building, located in Perugia, Italy. Two well-known simulation software’s, ASPEN Plus and TRNSYS, are purposely integrated. In the first phase of the study, a wood biomass combustion-based externally fired gas turbine (EFGT) along with an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) system is modeled in Aspen Plus. In the later phase, a historical building “Sant’ Apollinare” model, and the remaining CCHP system are developed in TRNSYS. The transient system is modeled such that it fulfills the peak thermal energy demands of the retrofitted building. The main components of the system are a heat exchanger (HE), storage tanks (TK), a single-stage LiBr-H2O absorption chiller (ACH), and balance of plant (BOP) components. A heat exchanger recovers heat from the gas cycle, which is then utilized for running an ORC, heating and cooling of the end-user building, biomass drying, and domestic hot water (DHW) supply. A storage tank supplies direct heat to the end-user in winter and drives the ACH in summer. The results of the model provide data on the performance parameters of different components of the CCHP system such as temperature, power consumption, and energy profiles that allow evaluating the overall energy performance of the CCHP system. Finally, a feasibility analysis of the system is carried out on the basis of economic indexes such as simple pay back (SPB) period, net present value (NPV) and profitability index (PI), for two different case scenarios assumed for fuel (e.g., biomass) supply cost. The SPB is 2.93 years, when biomass is obtained for free. Whereas, if biomass is purchased from the market the SPB becomes 7.15 years. From an environmental perspective, the plant ensures a decrease of 632 tons of CO2 emissions annually.

Field Drying for Enhancing Biomass Quality of Eucalyptus Logs and Trees in Florida, USA

Field drying Eucalyptus biomass can minimize the storage requirements, transportation costs, and/or the cost associated with biomass drying for biochar and other products. In central Florida, 12 6-year-old and 12 8-year-old Eucalyptus amplifolia and Eucalyptus grandis trees were field dried over two seasons, with two months of field drying in each season, and two tree forms (logs, whole tree). The whole tree average initial moisture content (MCod) on a dry basis ranged between 115 and 121% in E. amplifolia and 116 and 119% in E. grandis. The season and duration of field drying affected drying, but species, tree size, and tree form did not. In southern Florida, 19 3+-year-old coppice stems of an E. grandis × Eucalyptus urophylla hybrid clone (EH1) were field dried over two months of one season, with and without tree tops. The whole tree initial MCod ranged between 119 and 138%. The duration of field drying affected drying, but tree size and tree tops did not. Both studies suggest that field drying can effectively reduce wood MC and thus enhance E. amplifolia, E. grandis, and EH1 biomass quality.

The effect of compaction of the dispersed wood biomass layer on its drying efficiency

The article presents the results of experimental studies of the process of drying a layer of relatively large thickness (up to 100 mm) of woody biomass under conditions of radiation-convective heating. Based on the temperature values recorded in the experiments at the characteristic points of the biomass layer during the drying period, an analysis was made of the influence of the density of the filling of finely dispersed wood (pine shavings, sawdust) on the drying times. It has been established that the compaction of biomass leads to a significant acceleration (by 1.5–2 times, depending on the ambient temperature) of the drying process. A physical model is formulated that describes a complex of heat and mass transfer processes that occur during heating of woody biomass under compaction conditions. It is shown that a 1.7-fold increase in the density of a layer of finely dispersed wood (with an initial thickness of 100 mm) leads to an increase in the layer temperature during the entire drying period by an average of 23%. In order to substantiate the established regularities, an analysis was made of the change in the thermal conductivity of biomass during its compaction using a group of mathematical models of the thermal conductivity of heterogeneous media. The results of the theoretical analysis showed that the increase in the efficiency of biomass drying during its compaction occurs as a result of an increase in the effective thermal conductivity of the layer of crushed woody biomass. The results of the experiments clearly illustrate the possibility of increasing the efficiency of drying dispersed woody biomass without additional costs for optimizing heat and mass transfer processes.

Impact of Biomass Drying Process on the Extraction Efficiency of C-Phycoerythrin.

Drying the biomass produced is one of the critical steps to avoid cell degradation; however, its high energy cost is a significant technological barrier to improving this type of bioprocess's technical and economic feasibility. This work explores the impact of the biomass drying method of a strain of Potamosiphon sp. on the extraction efficiency of a phycoerythrin-rich protein extract. To achieve the above, the effect of time (12-24 h), temperature (40-70 °C), and drying method (convection oven and dehydrator) were determined using an I-best design with a response surface. According to the statistical results, the factors that most influence the extraction and purity of phycoerythrin are temperature and moisture removal by dehydration. The latter demonstrates that gentle drying of the biomass allows removing the most significant amount of moisture from the biomass without affecting the concentration or quality of temperature-sensitive proteins.

Drying Kinetics of a Single Biomass Particle Using Fick’s Second Law of Diffusion

Drying has been widely studied as a necessary process in biomass utilization. The steam diffusion law plays an important role in drying kinetics. The drying kinetics of a single biomass particle using Fick’s second law of diffusion was studied in this paper. A parabolic relationship appeared between the critical moisture content and temperature. The critical moisture content decreased with the increase in drying temperature and the initial moisture content. The drying temperature had a significant effect on the effective diffusivity and coefficient of mass transfer during the dramatically falling period of the biomass drying process. However, it was affected by the effective diffusivity and coefficient of mass transfer during the slowly falling period. The initial moisture caused the opposite effect during the different periods. The normalized biomass moisture content generally increased with the increase in drying temperature, and decreased with the increase in initial moisture content. The initial moisture content had an effect on the normalized biomass moisture during the slowly rising period. Meanwhile, the drying temperature had an effect on the normalized biomass moisture during the whole period. The critical moisture content and the normalized biomass moisture content had negative relevant relationship. This study provides some valuable conclusions regarding the biomass drying process.

Identifying Key Environmental Indicators in the Assessment of the Proof-of-Concept in Pigment Production from the Marine Cyanobacterium Cyanobium sp.

Cyanobacteria have long attracted market interest as a source of natural compounds such as pigments with proven bioactivity (carotenoid and phycobiliproteins). The cultivation and extraction processes for such compounds have been developed at different levels, from laboratory trials to photobioreactors on a demonstration scale. Based on this experience, it is possible to propose how the different stages of the process can be improved based on environmental performance indicators. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology allows to identify the hotspots that represent the greatest environmental impacts and to propose strategies to focus on those stages that can be improved. The general environmental indicators have been identified and the results showed that cyanobacteria cultivation has the greatest influence on environmental impact for all scales considered (from 20 L to 100 m3), which is attributed to the energy requirements. The main changes proposed to reduce the impact should focus on the stages of reactor cleaning, culture medium sterilisation and biomass drying. The implementation of these improvement alternatives can reduce the impact of the production and extraction processes by 85%. This work demonstrates how technological development must go hand in hand with impact assessment to make the best decisions in the overall process.

Untargeted metabolomic profiling of fresh and dried leaf extracts of young and mature Eucalyptus globulus trees indicates differences in the presence of specialized metabolites.

Aqueous extracts from Eucalyptus globulus leaves contain a wide variety of specialized metabolites, mainly polyphenols and appreciable amounts of volatile compounds, which are responsible for their diverse biological activities, such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, and allelopathic features. For this reason, several studies have been conducted to explore the composition of E. globulus leaf extracts for multiple therapeutic and commercial applications. However, so far, the available bibliographic reports only refer to the chemical composition of extracts prepared with leaves from mature trees, leaving much to clarify about the composition of juvenile eucalyptus leaf extracts. Furthermore, there is no consensus regarding the type of leaves, fresh or dried ones, to be used in the extraction procedure, considering the highest recovery of biologically active compounds. In this sense, this study aimed to characterize the chemical composition of aqueous extracts prepared with fresh and dried leaves from young and mature E. globulus trees. For this, leaf biomass from young and mature E. globulus trees was collected in three distinct places from a forest area, and after oven-drying a portion of the leaves, an extraction in hot water was carried out, followed by GC-MS and HPLC-MS/MS analyses. The results revealed that the maturity of eucalyptus trees and biomass drying significantly influenced the volatile and non-volatile composition of the aqueous extracts. Accordingly, while fresh leaf extracts of young trees had great levels of hydrolysable tannins, extracts prepared with fresh leaves from mature trees presented a wide range of terpenes. When dried leaf material was used, extracts had notorious contents of amino acids derivatives, C13 norisoprenoids, fatty and other organic acids. Overall, this study showed, for the first time, that plant maturity (young vs mature) and pre-processing (fresh vs dried) of foliar biomass of E. globulus trees need to be considered in the preparation of leaf aqueous extracts depending on the desired purposes, since major changes in what regards biologically active compounds were found.

Prototyping and characterisation of a biomass dryer for developing countries: case of Cameroon

This study includes the built and experimental characterisation of a prototype of biomass dryer made of local materials, whose fuel is charcoal. The principal objective is the determination of parameters where a functioning regime is established and to verify temperatures range at the level of the tray, i.e. the position of the shutter should be at the middle position; for ‘pebbles charcoal’, protocol 4 (0.4 kg/18 min) should be adopted to achieve the temperatures ranges (32°C–69°C) for drying agricultural foodstuff, but the packing of the foodstuff in the tray should not be very compact. These parameters are in line with the recommended temperature ranges for drying foodstuffs.

Development of an automated, multi-vessel respirometric system to evaluate decomposition of composting feedstocks

Aerobic respirometry, which involves measuring the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) evolved during decomposition, is an invaluable metric for evaluating biomass decomposability, characterising compost feedstocks, and studying decomposition dynamics over time. However, respirometric systems and CO 2 sampling methods can be expensive, operationally cumbersome, and produce temporally low-resolution data. This paper details the technical development and validation of an automated, multi-vessel respirometric system using off-the-shelf microcontrollers and miniature non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) CO 2 sensors to produce temporally high-resolution and accurate CO 2 data generated from decomposing biomass. The accuracy of the NDIR CO 2 sensors, as given by the cumulative CO 2 (g), was validated through an acetic acid-sodium bicarbonate reaction test. In this test, a mean cumulative CO 2 evolution of 0.99 g ( n = 8) was measured with the sensors from an expected stoichiometric yield of 1 g CO 2 , with a standard deviation of ±0.137 g. The operation, reliability, and reproducibility of the system were tested through a series of biomass decomposition experiments. Through these experiments, an airflow rate of 0.25 L min −1 was found to be most effective at preventing the excessive drying of biomass at an initial moisture content of 50%. The system sensed, per 5-s sampling event, a peak CO 2 concentration of ∼28,000 ppm at a temperature of 35 °C, which resulted in the largest mean cumulative CO 2 evolution of 27.93 g from 200 g dry biomass. As indicated by the CO 2 curves, the system can produce reliable and high-resolution CO 2 datasets on an individual vessel basis, making it a useful tool for respirometric studies. • An aerobic respirometric system with high-resolution CO 2 sampling was developed. • The reproducibility of the data in organic matter decomposition trials was high. • Accuracy of the CO 2 sensors was shown through acetic acid-sodium bicarbonate test. • The system produced reliable CO 2 data for aerobic decomposition of organic waste.

Coupling with in-situ electrochemical reactive chlorine species generation and two-phase partitioning method for enhanced microalgal biodiesel production

Microalgal-based biofuel production is of great significance in alleviating energy crisis and achieving carbon neutrality. However, the excessive costs and high solvent consumption in lipids extraction from microalgal obstruct the widespread application of biodiesel in practice. Reported herein is the construction of facile strategy for lipids extraction via electrocatalytic pretreatment and a subsequent two-phase partitioning method. Electrocatalytic pretreatment method adopts the solar as power source and avoids the drying of microalgal biomass, in favor of carbon neutrality requirement. During this process, eco-friendly electrode with high specific surface area could contribute to the sufficient generation of reactive chlorine species (RCS), facilitating the outflows of intracellular lipid. As a result, assisted with two-phase partitioning method, a satisfied performance of lipid recovery (86.72 %) was obtained. Notably, compared with traditional solvent method, two-phase partitioning method greatly reduced the dosage of organic solvent, which is an economical or environmental technique.

Microalgae biodiesel: A sustainable source of energy, unit operations, technological challenges, and solutions

The decline in reserves of fossil fuels has shifted the world towards renewable and sustainable alternative fuels. Microalgae, a rich source of triacylglycerol, are a potential candidate for biodiesel production. The rising industrial uses of algae led to the development of different unit operations. Unraveling the biochemistry of compounds present in algae to produce biofuels and byproducts, biomass productivity and efficient extraction of bioactive compounds remain key hurdles. This review brings into light the different cell disruption methodologies, with reduced environmental hazards caused by conventional methods. The production of lipids for biofuel like biodiesel cannot alone sustain the algae-based economy. Therefore, using lipid extracted biomass for various other purposes serves it a solution. Lipid Extracted Biomass has numerous applications, including the production of biofuels like biohydrogen and biogas, biochar, bio-composites, carbon quantum dots and bio-polythene of different densities. It can also be used as animal feed, manure to improve soil fertility and to treat wastewater. The present article discusses the state-of-the-art technologies developed for algal biomass cultivation, harvesting and drying. This comparative discussion on different algal biofuels’ unit operations will reveal associated technological challenges arising during various unit operations, from cultivation to lipid extraction and its conversion to biodiesel. This study presents a sustainable solution for extracting lipids from microalgae by utilizing its byproducts for several commercial purposes. The study concludes that modifications are required in the conventional approaches of harvesting, drying along with cultivation to improve the bioeconomic potential of algae

Drying biomass using waste heat from biomass ash by means of heat carrier

Agricultural and forestry biomass direct-fired power generation represents an important technology to promote low-carbon energy transition and sustainable development. To solve the problems of boiler output fluctuation caused by unstable combustion of high moisture content biomass and insufficient recovery of ash waste heat after combustion, steel heat carriers (HC) were used to absorb high-temperature ash (HTA) waste heat, and then HC was directly mixed with high moisture biomass for dewatering and drying. The thermal efficiency of waste heat recovery decreased with the increase of ash temperature, and the highest thermal efficiency of waste heat recovery was 77.4% at a heat-carrying spheres temperature (THC) of 600 °C and a mixing mass ratio of 3. Through the optimization of waste heat recovery and mixed drying process, at a biomass ash temperature of 800°C, 1 kg of ash was able to dry 0.75 kg of high moisture content biomass, resulting in a reduction in fuel moisture by about 10%.

Analysis of parameters important for indirect drying of biomass fuel

This paper focuses on biomass drying for the design and operation of an indirect dryer used in a biomass power plant. Indirect biomass drying is not as well described process as direct drying, especially when used for the preparation of biomass in energy processes, such as combustion or gasification. Therefore, it is necessary to choose a suitable model describing the drying process and evaluate its applicability for this purpose. The aim of this paper is to identify parameters that most significantly affect the indirect drying process of biomass for precise targeting of future experiments. For this purpose, the penetration model was chosen. The penetration model describes indirect drying through 21 parameters. To run a series of experiments focused on all parameters would be time consuming. Therefore, the easier way is to select the most important parameters through a sensitivity analysis, and then perform experiments focused only on the significant parameters The parameters evaluated as significant are the temperature of the heated wall, operating pressure in the drying chamber, surface coverage factor, emissivity of the heated wall, emissivity of the bed, diameter of the particle, and particle surface roughness. Due to the presumption of perfect mixing of the material being dried, stirrer speed is added into important parameters. Based on these findings, it will be possible to reduce the scope of experiments necessary to verify the applicability of the penetration model for the description of indirect biomass drying and the design of dryers for a practical use.

Predicting Drying Curves in Algal Biorefineries using Gaussian Process Autoregressive Models

In algal biofuel production, drying of the microalgal biomass is considered the most energy-intensive process. To save on operating costs, optimal control of the drying process should be guided by accurate mathematical models of the biomass parameters, particularly its moisture content. In this paper, we propose the use of Gaussian process autoregressive models (GPAR) for long-range moisture content prediction in the vacuum drying of algal biofuels. Our experiments involve the drying of Chlorococcum infusionum, wherein the measured variables are temperature, pressure, and moisture ratio. By computing the root mean squared error (RMSE) on test data, we demonstrate the superiority of GPAR to other models, namely Neural Networks, Support Vector Machines, Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, and Autoregressive Models for the same task. Through automatic relevance determination kernels, GPAR also found that the most significant predictors are the pressure readings. In the future, GPAR can potentially be used for the predictive control of the drying process, leading to more efficient biorefinery operations.

Production of Oscillatoria sp. BTA‐170 biomass in photobioreactor: Analysis of composition, drying behavior, sorption isotherm, and powder flow characteristics

AbstractIn this study, Oscillatoria sp. BTA‐170 was grown in a photobioreactor for 15 days, yielding 3.1 g/L of biomass. During the composition analysis of biomass, the moisture, protein, carbohydrate, lipid, and ash contents were found to be 83.27, 6.36, 5.48, 3.79, and 1.1% on a wet basis (w.b), respectively. The tray drying properties of cyanobacterial biomass were investigated at temperatures of 40, 60, and 80°C with constant air velocity of 0.6 m/s. To reduce the moisture content of biomass from 83.27% to <10%, drying time required 2, 12, and 30 hr at 80, 60, and 40°C, respectively. The calculated effective moisture diffusivity of biomass was 5.10 × 10−9, 6.34 × 10−8, and 2.30 × 10−7 m2/s at 40, 60, and 80°C, respectively, and the activation energy was found to be 28.01, 31.04, and 33.27 kJ/mol at 40, 60, and 80°C, respectively. The logarithmic and Henderson and Pabis models showed the highest R2 values of 0.997 and 0.996 at 80°C, respectively, and were thus employed to explain biomass drying characteristics. The drying constant value grew with increasing temperature, with the highest value obtained using the logarithmic model at 80°C being 0.523 (hr−1). The bulk density of biomass powder dried at 80°C was 598.21 kg/m3 and the tapped density was 652.80 kg/m3, with Hausner ratio and Carr index of 1.091 and 8.363, respectively, showing that biomass powder had excellent flow qualities. The dried cyanobacterial biomass is a great source of protein, according to FTIR measurements. Similarly, after selecting four models based on the sorption isotherm, the GAB model was shown to be the best fit to represent the sorption behavior of Oscillatoria sp. BTA‐170 powder.Practical ApplicationsThe drying characteristics of Oscillatoria sp. BTA‐170 biomass were evaluated using thin‐layer drying models. The primary goal of drying biomass is to remove water from the solids to a point where microorganisms and degradation chemical processes are considerably reduced. The analysis of drying properties aids in the development of a cost‐effective dryer. By hastening the manufacture of biomass powder, the effective design of the drying process helps to decrease time and processing costs. After the drying process, an FTIR analysis can be used to determine the presence of macromolecules. Similarly, sorption isotherm studies were performed to evaluate the safe moisture content of items and to estimate shelf life at a specific temperature and relative humidity.